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Aaron Judge Rookie Card Collection Including Rare Autographs Purchased

Just Collect Has Purchased HUGE Aron Judge Collection Including Multiple Signed Rookies

June 09, 2024

Stack of Rookies 3

Multiple, rare rookie cards of New York Yankees superstar, Aaron Judge, have been proudly purchased by Just Collect. Including many autographed cards and low-numbered inserts, this collection is much like a moonshot The Judge hits: a home run.

Aaron Judge is one of the biggest stars in baseball. The 6'7" slugger is the Captain of the New York Yankees and is putting up historic numbers in the baseball record books. In his very first at-bat in 2016, "The Judge" homered to deep center field, and never looked back. In 2017, Judge won the Rookie of the Year award behind a rookie record of 52 home runs. In 2022, Judge blasted an American League record 62 home runs, besting former Yankee Roger Maris' tally of 61 set in 1961. For perspective, the second-most home runs a player hit in 2022 was 46. Adding to his mantle, Judge took home the 2022 MVP award. 2024 has started off in style for the five-time All-Star. At the time we are writing this post, Judge is leading baseball with 29 home runs in only 79 games. Judge has homered 286 times in his career while only suiting up for 914 career games. Like the Incredible Hulk from the comics does best, Judge smashes.

When we had the opportunity to review a collection of Aaron Judge cards and give our , our eyes bulged out like an opposing pitcher on the rubber. Multiple autographed rookie cards, low-numbered inserts, patch cards, and the highest grades that a card could receive are in this collection. Like The Judge's home runs, the hits just kept coming as we viewed each card.

THE AARON JUDGE COLLECTION

2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects Autographs

The first picture in the slide show below is jaw-dropping. From 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects are TEN, yes TEN rare autographed Aaron Judge minor league cards. Several years before Judge made his Major League debut, Bowman included a 21-year-old Judge in the 2013 release as a prospect. This set includes several variations of each card, some being quite rare.

The first two cards are "Refractors"; you can see the rainbow glimmer on each card. Now compare these two cards to the "base" cards, the third and fourth cards in the picture. The refractor cards are more difficult to find than the base card. Let's get into the rare versions! The last card in the top row is a "Blue Wave" variation. Three Blue Wave cards are included in the collection! Each Blue Wave autographed card is numbered to 50, meaning just fifty of these cards were created. In the bottom row is a pair of "Black Wave" variations. Only 50 of the Black Wave variations exist, too! The first card in the bottom row is a "Purple Refractor." While not limited to 50 cards like the Blue and Black Wave cards, the Purple isn't easy to find: each were inserted 1 in every 6,555 packs of cards! You might hear a collector of modern sports cards trying to collect the "rainbow" of a player. In this case, you see red, blue, and black colors of the "rainbow" to this set. Once someone collects a card of each color, they have completed the rainbow.

All ten rare cards have been graded by two of the top grading and authenticating companies in the hobby: PSA and BGS. While your eyes are focused on The Judge in his Yankees uniform, bat in-hand, perhaps looking to drill a home run in each of these 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects cards, you can see each grade the cards received by shifting your eyes up to the top right corner of the cards. The BGS cards are all graded between 9.5 and a perfect Gem Mint 10 for the card and a 10 for the autograph. Each card graded by PSA received a perfect Gem Mint 10 grade. Not only is each card rare, they are in immaculate condition. Condition is everything when evaluating cards! Using the grading scale of a 1 to a 10, a change in just a single grade could change the value of a card by thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars!

High-End Rookie Patch Autographs

Another term you hear regarding modern cards is "RPA" which stands for Rookie-Patch-Auto. When a rookie card has a piece of uniform and an autograph, that is an RPA. High-end RPA's are very coveted! In the second photo of the slide show below are scarce RPA cards of Aaron Judge.

The second card you see in picture two is a 2015 Panini National Treasures patch auto. Next to Judge is a swatch of his jersey. This card is signed, and just between the patch and auto is 6/10 printed. Only TEN of these cards exist! In this collection is card 6 of the 10 ever produced. When we say "high-end", you'll understand once you read the price and contents of the box. A box of 2015 National Treasures baseball has one pack with just eight cards. The price tag on the box on release day - about $500.

Now feast your eyes on the first card in the bottom row of picture two. From 2017 Panini Flawless baseball is this gorgeous RPA numbered to 10. Only ten of this card rolled out of the factory and here is an incredible copy. Between a giant patch of of Yankees black/gray jersey, Judge signed his name. The "Flawless" name derives from what is on some of the cards: real, genuine diamonds or gemstones. Flawless was released in a briefcase instead of a standard box, and contained ten total cards. In 2017 Panini Flawless came at a cost of about $850!

2017 Topps Triple Threads is represented by the last card in photo two. Three pieces of Judge's uniform make up the "triple threads", and this signed version is numbered 29/75. While more copies of this Triple Threads rookie card were created than the National Treasures and Flawless cards, we enjoy this version as it comes with Yankee home pinstripes. Not as high-end as the first few products, Triple Threads is still pricey; boxes came with two packs of seven cards each for $200.

Along with the high-end RPA cards in the second picture is a 2017 Bowman Chrome Purple Refractor graded PSA 10, a 2017 Bowman's Best Atomic Refractor graded PSA 10, and a 2015 Bowman Draft Chrome Purple Refractor graded PSA 10. Neither card is numbered, but all are hard to come by. Example: only 105 Atomic Refractor cards have even been graded by PSA, and this is a Gem Mint 10!

Topps Transcendent Rookie Cards

If you thought the Flawless cards were rare, you may want to sit down for this one. In the third photo is a complete set of Aaron Judge rookie cards from 2017 Topps Transcendent given out at the VIP party. Transcendent is the crème de la crème! Only 87 boxes were made in 2017. Each box contained a set of cards, multiple autographed cards, rare inserts, and the most sought-after ticket: an invitation to the Topps Transcendent VIP party. As only 87 invitations exist, you know that the party was going to be spoken about for ages. Each attendee had dinner with Hank Aaron! Along with dinner with The Hammer, attendees received special cards from Topps including a set of Aaron Judge Topps History cards. Of course, these Aaron Judge sets were limited to 87. The cards stacked in photo three are THE cards from the Transcendent VIP party! You'll notice each card is designed after the original Topps cards through the years. Example: The first card on the top right is Aaron Judge in the 1990 Topps design. We'll answer you question of "how do we get to go to the VIP party?!" The box of 2017 Transcendent price tag - $25,000. We didn't get to go attend the party either, so we are grateful the owner chose Just Collect to sell this collection to!

Topps Chrome Rookie Cards

You're probably very familiar with Topps "flagship" baseball cards; these are the standard cards you'll open packs of from your local stores. From the 1950's until today, Topps offers their annual flagship product, and long-time collectors still appreciate this release. In recent years, Topps has released a "chrome" version of these flagship cards. The images of the chrome cards are identical to the flagship cards. The Chrome is a little more expensive than the flagship cards, and can be found with various refractor versions like you read about a moment ago. Each refractor variation is limited! The fourth photo contains multiple Topps Chrome refractor rookie cards. In the bottom row are three 2017 Topps Chrome refractor variations, each graded PSA 10. There is one Sepia variation and one Purple variation that sandwich the plain refactor so you can see the difference in each. The Sepia, which looks like a film negative (remember those?) is an exclusive insert from retail blaster boxes. When you see a small box of cards on the shelves of a retail store like Wal-Mart or Target, those are "retail" boxes. Boxes sold here at Just Collect or your local hobby card shop are "hobby" boxes. The Purple refractors are numbered to just to 299 copies. Checking the PSA population report, only 77 copies of the Purple refractor have been graded. Do you think there are still Purple refractors sitting in sealed packs?

In the top row are a few more Topps Chrome refractors including the 2017 Chrome Update refractor. Topps releases their flagship and chrome cards in different series, making room for rookie cards, trades, and all-star inserts. In 2017 Topps Chrome, Judge was in both releases, and is batting on the Update release in top row, second card. Next to the batting version is a 1987 Topps 35th anniversary refractor! This retro design takes you back to your youth, buying all of those wood-bordered 1987 Topps cards in wax packs.

A few more atheistically-pleasing cards round out the fourth picture in our slide show including 2015 Bowman Chrome Farm's Finest Minis, 2016 Bowman Scout's Top 100 Gold, and 2017 Bowman's Best Purple Refractor.

Rated Rookies

You loved that Rated Rookie logo on Donruss cards in the 1980's and 1990's, didn't you? That 1989 Donruss Ken Griffey Jr card is one you can't pass up! These 2017 Panini Donruss cards to start off the fifth photo below carry that iconic Rated Rookie logo. The first three cards are from the Optic set, which is similar to the Chrome release Topps has. You can see the first three cards are Optic and the fourth is a base Donruss release. The D and O letters in the bottom left of each card can help you differentiate the two releases. You guessed it - some of these Rated Rookies are very limited! The third card in, is a Carolina Blue variation which is numbered to just 35! All four Rated rookies are graded PSA 10.

Now that you've gone back to those 1989 Donruss Rated Rookie cards, how about 1989 Donruss The Rookies set! Panini made a few of these retro cards as well, and you can see a pair of The Rookies in the bottom row. The 15-card set has variations, one being the Gold Press Proof card that sits as the first card in the bottom row. Just 99 (fitting number!) of the Gold Press Proof cards were created!

Rounding out the cards in the fifth photo are cards from 2013 Panini Prizm Draft Class, 2015 Panini Contenders, and 2017 Panini Father's Day.

STACKS OF RARE ROOKIES!

The last two photos in the slide show help present how many Aaron Judge rare rookie cards are in this collection! We could fill this ENTIRE page with each card, but we want you to look at this stack and let your imagination work wonders. The bottom row in the sixth photo has rare non-autographed variations of the 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects release. From the Gold Refactor to the Silver Ice variations, each are limited, and all graded PSA 10! Only 50 Gold refactors were created, and we have one here right off the bat. The final photo, another huge stack of rookies graded PSA 10, even has an Aaron Judge coins, reminiscent of the 1964 Topps baseball coin set.

Our words can do this collection no justice (you know we had to slip in one Judge dad joke). Please take a look at this impeccable, historic Aaron Judge collection:

SLIDE SHOW

THE APPRAISAL AND PURCHASE

The owner of the Aaron Judge cards, Nick, placed a call to our office at (732) 828-2261 and spoke with Kristen here at Just Collect. The call was initially regarding vintage cards from 1933 Goudey and World Wide Gum since we specialize in vintage cards. Nick sent an e-mail with photos of the vintage cards to our president of acquisitions, John, and our owner, Leighton for a free appraisal. Nick wanted to discuss the evaluation in-person, and chose to visit our store in Summit, NJ. Turns out that Nick not only had the vintage cards he was interested in selling, but he had this exquisite Aaron Judge collection, too!

While we specialize in and purchase cards from 1879 to 1979, we are interested in select modern cards like a 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card or 2000 Bowman Chrome Tom Brady rookie card. As Yankee fans and adorers of The Judge, happily reviewed these rare Judge rookie cards with Nick at our Just Collect store.

After the evaluation, we made Nick a fair offer for the entire Aaron Judge collection, and he accepted. We then paid Nick how he wanted to be paid! When you choose to sell your collection to Just Collect, we can pay you in cash, company check, or wire transfer. Nick chose to sell the 1933 Goudey and World Wide Gum collection as well; make sure to check back on the Just Collect blog for the story!

While Nick chose to travel from his home in New Hampshire and visit the Just Collect store in New Jersey, we do offer many ways to evaluate YOUR collection! If Summit, NJ. is out of your way, we offer options of shipping, meeting at your home or nearby public place, and at no time would we turn down going to a Yankee game with you and reviewing your collection as Aaron Judge takes the field. Ready for a Yankee Stadium roll call? Call us today!

WE ARE ALWAYS BUYING

Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.

We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:

We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than or using our website, too.

Travel to Us

If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.

Come to convention

We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.

Meet in-person

If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.

Meet in New York City

If you're near New York City and would like to meet in a public place, our owner, Leighton, would be happy to meet you; read all the information here.

SHIP your collection

If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.

OUR BUYING PHILOSOPHY

We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!

Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.